August 30, 2010 | Desserts, Fruit

My daughter arrived back from New Zealand, rented an apartment in Breckenridge, and started her senior year at CU all in a week. Her pace makes even me, the always on the go person, feel dizzy. In spite of her schedule – she lives in the mountains so she can snowboard, ski, hike, and rock climb but commutes to Boulder for classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays – she has asked me to do a weekly cooking lesson with her on Wednesdays.Since she already cooks quite a bit, I struggled to figure out what to focus on when I had the brilliant idea of just following the classic techniques series recipes that I learned at Cook Street cooking school in Denver when I was training. I’ll try to share one recipe from each week with you so you get a feel for the progression.The first lesson focuses on knife skills, including cutting a bunch of vegetables. Those were used in a chicken soup/stew (learning how to poach chicken was part of that recipe) and included homemade parsley garlic pasta (yummy). Another knife skill we focused on  was how to segment an orange or grapefruit – I’ve included that in this post about fruit salad. The simple combination of flavors, combined with the surprising candied peel topping, makes for a refreshing finish to a meal. This week we’re doing a lesson all about eggs – stick around to see what we make!

Citrus with Basil and Pernod
Serves 4

2 navel oranges
1 grapefruit
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoons basil chiffonade
1 tablespoon Pernod

Peel the citrus with a vegetable peeler and cut into small strips. Place in a small pot of cold water and bring to a boil. Drain and repeat 2 more times. Combine sugar and water and heat to dissolve sugar. Add citrus peels and simmer over low for 30 minutes. Drain and toss candied peels with a bit of superfine sugar so they don’t stick together. Set aside.

Segment citrus fruit over a bowl, making sure to catch all of the juices. Add basil and Pernod and toss to combine. Serve with candied citrus peels on top.